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V. An Account of Three New Species of British Fishes, with some Remarks on 

 Twenty others new to the Coast of Scotland. By Richard Parnell, M.D., 

 F.R.S.Ed. &c. 



Read 20th February 1837. 



Although a great number of Fishes have been described by naturalists as 

 inhabiting the coast of Scotland, and though much has been done to increase its 

 Fauna in other respects, yet in a field so extensive much must stOl remain to 

 be done. Many lakes and estuaries in Scotland are stUl unexplored, and many 

 fishes being merely local, a more thorough and accurate examination of these 

 lakes and estuaries must take place, before the Ichthyology of Scotland can be 

 fuUy ascertained. 



AciPENSER LATiROSTRis, Pamell. 



In the works of Pennant, Donovan, Fleming, Yarrell, and other writers 

 on Ichthyology, is mentioned but one species of British sturgeon (Acipenser sfu- 

 rio) ; but from the observations of practical fishei-men as well as my own, I think 

 there is little doubt but that two species at least wiU in future be recognised as 

 inhabiting the British coast. 



It has long been noticed by the fishermen of the Solway Frith, that two spe- 

 cies of sturgeon are occasionally entangled in their salmon-nets, the one with a 

 blunt nose, and the other with a sharp one ; the latter species being the most 

 common of the two. 



A fine specimen of the blunt-nosed sturgeon was taken in the Frith of Forth 

 in the month of July 1835, and brought to the Edinburgh market for sale, the 

 head of which I preserved. (See Plate IV.) A few weeks after, another was 

 taken in the Tay, which differed in no respect from the former except in sexual 

 distinction. 



Description. — Length 7 feet 9 inches ; weight 8 stones. The colour of the 

 back and sides is of a Mght grey, with a shade of olive ; the belly dirty white. 

 The body is armed with five rows of osseous shields, nmning from the head to 

 the tail. The first row commences behind the head, and runs down the central 

 ridge of the back ; the two next rows arise one on each side of the former. Im- 

 mediately on the lower margin of the pectorals the other two rows commence. 

 The skin is rough, with a number of small angular osseous plates intermixed with 

 very minute spicula. The first fi-ee shield on the dorsal ridge is nearly circular, 



VOL. XIV. PART I. s 



